Tag: Northern California

If you see a flotilla of unmanned orange vessels making their way toward San Diego, don’t be alarmed. They’re here to help.

The autonomous sailing vehicles, made by Alameda, California-based tech company Saildrone in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), are sailing from Canada on a mission to collect information about fish populations. Each Saildrone has 18 sensors that collect data about the ocean below it: wind speed and direction, temperature, salinity, etc.

“Saildrones are 20-feet long and 19-feet off the water,” said Richard Jenkins, CEO of Saildrone, Inc. “Weigh about 60 pounds and can operate kind of indefinitely. Wind propulsion pushes it along, solar charges the batteries and computer for communication.”